The Top North Korean Expert Explains What Happened to Kim Jong Un's Uncle from the New Republic
"This young man seems to have lived overseas too briefly to learn anything, but long enough to lose touch with his own country, with the myths that keep him in power. ... "
... Even More Reasons to Feel Good About 2013 (Charles Kenny) from Bloomberg-Businessweek
"There was, however, plenty of good news that didn’t come with a giant asterisk attached—and a lot of it involved continued progress in the developing world."
The Obama Political Obituaries Are Way Premature (Michael Tomasky) from the Daily Beast
"It’s been a messy year, but let’s not him pair him with Nixon just yet. Obama isn’t even as bad off as Bush was after his Social Security debacle—and nothing rules out a rally in 2014."
Stop Worrying So Much That Low Obamacare Signups Will Cause A 'Death Spiral' from Business Insider
"The 365,000 people who enrolled in October and November was below the administration's goal of 1.2 million, but the pace of sign-ups is growing quickly. While this data is certainly entertaining to analyze, it doesn't really matter very much — at least for the sustainability of the insurance market — whether the government is on pace to reach 7 million signups by March 31. ... "If there are fewer people overall signed up, that may be a problem of political optics, but not one that really gets to the heart of whether the law is working well or not," said Larry Levitt, vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation."
Why Obamacare Won’t Spiral into Fiery, Actuarial Doom (Sarah Kliff) from the Washington Post
"The rumors of an Obamacare death spiral have been greatly exaggerated. So say Larry Levitt, Gary Claxton and Anthony Damico, experts at the Kaiser Family Foundation who have put together a new brief analyzing what would happen if young adults snubbed the Affordable Care Act. Even if young people sign up at half the rate the administration hopes for, it would nudge premiums up only by a few percentage points, their report says."
The GOP Repeal Trap (Greg Sargent) from the Washington Post
"The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne, Indiana, reports on a fascinating exchange between GOP Rep. Marlin Stutzman and a local meat market owner, Lee Albright, who likes the Affordable Care Act and quizzed the Congressman about the real world implications of the GOP repeal stance: ... The Republican seems to be implicitly conceding not only that the GOP repeal stance is politically problematic, but also that the Republican position constitutes taking health coverage away from people."
The GOP’s Fight has Just Begun (E.J. Dionne Jr.) from the Washington Post
"These arguments, however, are secondary to the issue of how a conservative opposition should comport itself. The governing wing won this round. But Ryan’s comments on the debt ceiling, coupled with similar remarks from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, suggest that Republicans will face another internal struggle over how much to demand in exchange for expanding the government’s borrowing authority."
Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell Issue Least Frightening Hostage Threat Ever (Jonathan Chait) from New York Magazine
"Obama tested the Republican willingness to trigger a worldwide economic meltdown to obtain concessions, and it turned out, they won’t pull the trigger. How on Earth they think they can try this bluff again, I can’t imagine. Indeed, political conditions for the threat are even less favorable now that the two parties have agreed to a budget."
The Public Still Blames Bush. And It Celebrates the Clintons. (Sean Sullivan) from the Washington Post
"Nearly five years after George W. Bush left office, half the public still blames the former president for the nation’s economic woes, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll released this week. The survey comes as Republicans have continued to keep the 43rd president at arm’s length. Democrats, meanwhile, have warmly embraced the family that occupied the White House prior to Bush; polling data show the Clintons are riding high."
Richard Florida, Mr. Creative Class, Is Now Mr. Rust Belt from the New Republic
"Richard Florida's theory of the creative class has been disproved. He's hoping you won't notice. ... His theories about how to boost city economies have, quite simply, been discredited. Rather than provide universal uplift, as he promised in his 2002 treatise, The Rise of the Creative Class, the clustering of high-earning professionals in areas rich in his “three T’s” of technology, talent, and tolerance has exposed inequalities both between and within cities."
ROBOT TECHNOLOGY NUGGET [of a sort]!!
The 'Killer Robot' Olympics (Christopher Dickey) from the Daily Beast
"The world may discover some hard truths this week at the amazing DARPA Robotics Challenge, a competition for the world’s next-generation machines."
THIRD REICH NUGGET!!
Musings of a Nazi Henchman Revealed for the First Time as Long-lost Diary is Finally Discovered after Vanishing During the Nuremberg Trials from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"400 pages written by Alfred Rosenberg, a senior Nazi who played a central role in the extermination of millions of Jews, given to DC museum. The diary disappeared at Nuremberg trials 70 years ago - US prosecutor Robert Kempner long suspected of smuggling diary out of Germany."
While not as well known as Goehring, Himmler, Hess and Eichmann, Rosenberg was very much in their league as an important Nazi in Hitler's government.
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